Tensile and impact properties of rice husk filled ethylene-acrylic ester maleic anhydride compatibilized polypropylene composites

Abstract

Rice husk (RH) is an agricultural waste that is gaining importance as fillers for polymers due to its abundant advantages such as light weight, low cost and environmentally friendly. This study investigates the tensile and impact properties of rice husk waste (RH) filled polypropylene (PP) composites with ethylene-acrylic ester maleic anhydride (E-AE-MA) as compatibilizer. The compatibilizer agent is used to improve compatibility between the RH which is hydrophilic and non-polar PP. Tensile test and impact strength test were conducted according to ASTM D638 and ASTM D256 standards. The incorporation of 15 wt% of RH into PP increased the Young's modulus of PP by 28 % but decreased the tensile strength and impact strength by 10 % and 31 % compared to neat PP. The elongation at break was observed to decrease by approximately 4 %. The addition of E-AE-MA at 4 parts per hundred (phr) to the composite increased the impact strength and elongation at break of RH-PP composite by 18 % and 22 %, but decreased the Young's modulus and tensile strength by 18 % and 5 %. The overall results showed that the elongation at break and Young's modulus of the compatibilized RH-PP composite is higher than neat PP, including that E-AE-MA is an effective compatibilizer between RH filler and PP due to its ability to improve adhesion between the two phases.